The Utila blog is about health, behavioral health and patient-centered technologies. At Utila we believe that better communication leads to more engaged patients, better treatment outcomes, and reduced healthcare costs.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Supplementing My Care With Utila

I recently had arthroscopic surgery on my left hip. Aside from one thing, the care that I got from Kaiser has been excellent. Where Kaiser, and other providers fall short is engagement. To their credit, my doctor, physical therapist, and surgeon gave me great instructions when I walked out the door. This medication daily, this other one as needed, physical therapy exercises three times per day, this precaution, that precaution. A week out from surgery I noticed a couple things. First of all, my PT and surgeon haven't been able to meaningfully track my progress. They didn't know for instance that for a couple days I wasn't completing my PT exercises 3 times per day like I was supposed to. They also didn't know that when I started using Utila, my treatment adherence actually increased thanks to the text message reminders that I scheduled for myself. A growing body of research has shown that text messages are the best way of nudging patients. See my progress below!